TELEVISION Fit couple competing as team on 'Race'Sunday, February 15, 2009 3:28 AM By Molly Willow

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

CBSBrad and Victoria HuntVictoria Hunt applied to go on the reality show Survivor many times through the years.

Despite the apparent interest of casting directors, her pursuit never led anywhere until she showed them a picture of herself with husband Brad.

That did the trick -- not for Survivor but for another CBS reality show.

The couple from Columbus will appear in the 14th installment of the Emmy-winning The Amazing Race, beginning tonight.

"I thought it was pretty funny she tried to get on Survivor for . . . (years) but, as soon as they saw my picture, they said, 'Come on out,' " Brad, 52, said with a laugh.

Like his wife, Brad Hunt is no couch potato.

He has taken part in Ironman triathlons, marathons and ultramarathons as well as rock and ice climbing, high-altitude mountaineering, kayaking through the Everglades and powerlifting.

Victoria has done much of the same while also becoming an avid skier, despite multiple foot surgeries.

The two are what most people would consider "fitness freaks," said Victoria, 47.

They met through a personal ad and married nine years ago.

Both work at American Electric Power and regularly tune in Survivor and The Amazing Race.

Although they aren't permitted by the network to talk about their experiences on the show -- filming began at Halloween and wrapped up about a month later -- the Hunts' conditioning probably helped them during the extreme challenges and settings.

This season's race spans 40,000 miles and nine countries in 22 days. The teams experienced the world's second-highest bungee jump (but who's counting?), bone-chilling temperatures, suffocating heat, and, for the first time in the series, travel to Romania and Siberia.

All quite a change from the "honeymoon-type" destinations the Hunts usually visit, Victoria said.

Their friends and relatives weren't surprised that the couple participated in the show.

"It just seems like the kind of thing that we would do," Brad said.

"(The show is) looking for people who have an opinion," Victoria said. "We're both very strong-willed and opinionated people. We make what I think is an interesting couple."

They weren't allowed to tell anyone what program they were appearing on until recently, a secret friends and family members pounced on.

"They've just been trying to pump us for information," Brad said.

"You develop thick skin and a straight face," Victoria said.

When new-season promos began running on CBS a few weeks ago, their secret was out.

"It's nice to be able to say, 'Yeah, we're on the show. That's us,' " Victoria said.

I'm fine with them lying.. because these are mistakes that teams like (Christie and Jodi) should have found out themselves because no one will help them on the race unless they learn to be independent.

If there are lesser likable teams this season.. (I'M LIKING EVERYONE FOR NOW).. they will be sure be one of my favourites. (They remind me of Fran and Barry)

Logged

"The Amazing Race shows the best and worst out of you. But if only negative things are shown, then it's probably you. - Jobby"

I'm fine with them lying.. because these are mistakes that teams like (Christie and Jodi) should have found out themselves because no one will help them on the race unless they learn to be independent.

I'm fine with it more because it guaranteed at least Christie & Jodi wound up behind them. And since they were on the same train as the other teams that finished between fifth and tenth with them (all except for the now-eliminated Preston & Jennifer, of course), it was something they needed to give themselves and the other teams a buffer of some sort.

The only problem with this, though, is that this could come back to bite them, especially considering Christie & Jodi still managed to survive this leg. They could return the favor and do to Brad & Victoria what they did to them.

Still, I like this team for now. Hell, with Preston & Jennifer gone, I now like EVERYONE!

Logged

JamisonEleven teams race around the world for $1,000,000 on The Amazing Race 14! Sundays at 8/7 Central on CBS!

Brad & Victoria, the married Ohio couple, were eliminated on Episode 3 of The Amazing Race Season 14.What was the most interesting location during your participation in the race?Brad: Brasov, Romania. Most people travel to exotic destinations like Thailand or cultural places like Western Europe. But not too many people think of Eastern Europe. We enjoyed the parts where we stayed at  the old town. I liked that we were surrounded by 400-to-600-year-old buildings.Do you feel they were giving you enough money for each part of the race?Victoria: They give you money at the beginning of each leg  I think they give you just enough money to not have enough. You know what your immediate expenses are going to be, like flights, trains or cabs. But should you allow yourself to spend money on food? You become very frugal.Brad: Not only that, but by just barely having enough money, when you run into problems you cant buy your way out of it. So when you do run into trouble it forces you to interact with the locals. If we had credit cards we could get ourselves out of any kind of jam. Without them, we had to get people to help us. But we also had to watch our budget. When we were planning our travel we had to think in terms of not just whats the fastest way to get to the next place, but whats the cheapest way to get there. It makes it a much more personal experience.

How many real-time hours (not TV hours) did the Amsterdam detour take you?Victoria: We think we lost about 18 hours. I was zippity-zip through the gymnastics. And you saw Brad opening those bloody boxes Keep in mind they had finished the gymnastics hours before wed even gotten on the plane (9:15 a.m.). They finished the challenges early in the morning and were waiting at the train station in Bucharest to get to Brasov. We did it [Amsterdam detour] to get an advantage and everyone ended up bunching up anyway at the train.Victoria: It was hard from our perspective too  while we were watching it on TV. We knew we were going to be eliminated and the only time they could really show us was at the butt end of the episode. They could have had an hour of our efforts to catch up  there was a lot that wasnt shown.Brad: When we got off the plane in Bucharest we got a cab driver that was just like the car chases in James Bond movies. He was missing cars by an inch. He was driving on train tracks and in oncoming traffic. It was a death ride, but we loved every minute of it.Victoria: I really enjoyed the gymnastics. I had fun with it, I had no problems. I dont think I had to repeat a single exercise. But we maybe only saw 15 seconds of that.Did you stay at the hotel thats right at the airport? Howd you sleep?Brad: They KLMput us up in actually what we were told was the nicest Holiday Inn in the world, and I believe it. I cant say we didnt enjoy it.Victoria: We ate well, we slept well. But we felt miserable.Where do you think youll be traveling to next? Brad: We have some travel planned. Well be going to L.A. for a VIP party with the cast. Internationally, we talked about Argentina this morning. Wed both like to go to India but would need two to four weeks for that trip. We have real jobs and its hard to find the time to get away. Wed like to take at least one international trip a year.Weve already been to Canada and Mexico  out-of-the-way places not on tours, like Oaxaca, Chihuahua, Copper Canyon. Typically we dont travel to touristy places. We loved Puerto Rico. Not enough people know what a varied place it is or about all of the activities there. Its so easy to get to and easy traveling for U.S. citizens. No passport. Highly recommended.One thing we got out of the race was that it was kind of easy traveling. In the beginning we were a little hesitant about what itd take to do exotic international traveling, but it turned out to be super-easy. Its so pleasurable  so different from the travel that wed done in the United States.Victoria: The people around the world are so genuinely kind and helpful. Its refreshing. It makes it easy to want to go back. Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal bloggerhttp://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/index.php/the-amazing-race-14--4191/

The "Married Couple" team of Brad and Victoria Hunt may have been eliminated from The Amazing Race for their risky decision-making, but they'll maintain that they decisions were not mistakes.

For Brad, a 52-year-old distribution dispatcher, and Victoria, a 47-year-old tax manager, the risky decision to take a flight that would get the Columbus, OH couple to Bucharest, Romania ahead of many of the teams but included a connecting flight through Amsterdam had the potential to help them immensely. However it backfired instead, digging them into a hole they could get out of before they became the third team to be eliminated from the CBS reality travel competition.

On Monday, Brad and Victoria spoke to Reality TV World about why they decided to make the risky move to Amsterdam, how close they came to making up all of the ground the lost after the move failed, and how and why they managed to be the only team to complete the now infamous cheese hill challenge the way the instructions had intended the teams to.

Reality TV World: Both you and [Amanda Blackledge] and [Kris Klicka] were told on that first train ride that there was a slim chance that you'd arrive in time to able to make the 4:45PM flight. Amanda and Kris decided to still go for it any ways -- why did you guys decide not to?

Brad: They actually got to the airport a little bit earlier than us, so they had more time.

Reality TV World: How come they got there ahead of you if you were on the same...

Victoria: (Interrupting) They got off at a different exit.

Brad: Yeah they found a local that showed them a quicker way to get to the airport than we were able to get to, so they probably beat us there by 10-15 minutes, but that was enough time to get there. We were told by the people [we talked to] that there was no possible way that we could make it, so.. You know, it's a big airport too, so...

Reality TV World: Did you have any concerns about booking a flight that no other team was taking and required a connecting flight that had the potential to set you back, as it ended up doing?

Brad: There was some concern about that, but at the time we didn't know no other team was taking it. Munich is a huge airport. One thing they didn't show was our half-mile run through Munich Airport with the camera crew in tow shoving people out of the way, jumping in front of [people] to get all the way back there.

And then we got there and we saw no other teams were there and we kinda thought "Oh.." We kinda knew that it wasn't a good idea to ride on a plane alone, but then what are we gonna do, walk all the way back to the ticket counter and then find out that the place we wanted is now sold out? You gotta make a decision and you kinda gotta go with it.

So then it started getting foggy and we talked to the gate agent who was like "Oh no, no, no the fog will be even worse [in Amsterdam], the planes will be delayed even more at your connection so there's no chance you'll miss it."

Victoria: We had like a posse of people standing around trying to assist us and they were all very convincing when they said to us "Your connecting flight will certainly be delayed so you shouldn't have a problem making the connection. And even if your connecting flight isn't delayed you still have enough [time] on this flight to get there."

It wasn't until five minutes before our plane landed in Amsterdam that we heard the pilot come on and say "Any flight leaving before 8:30PM will be departing. Any flight departing after 8:30PM has been canceled." I think our flight was 8:30PM.

It was just awful luck.

Reality TV World: Were there any other later flights going to [Bucharest] that you guys could have taken, before they got cancelled? Or was the [flight] you were going to take the last one [going to Bucharest] that night?

Victoria: The airport shut down. All flights.

Brad: Yeah, they told us there was not other flights. [No other] flights were going to anyplace that could possible connect to Bucharest.

Victoria: It was the worst possible situation you could imagine.

Reality TV World: Brad, you were shown worrying a little after you learned that your [initial Munich-to-Amsterdam] flight had been delayed. Did either of you guys consider scrapping the Amsterdam flight at that point, or -- as you said -- were you too far into it to go back at that point?

Brad: Well yeah, it's just kind of a hard thing because we're going with the best possible information we can get, which is from a local gate agent that says "It's delayed but it'll be okay. Don't worry about it."

Then it was delayed a little bit more and he still says "Don't worry about it," and then the more it's delayed the more you get past the point of no return until we said "Well we there's definitely no going back now, it's just not gonna work out."

We've watched [The Amazing Race] and we've seen, for example, teams who pick a challenge then can't do it, then they go pick a different challenge, then they can't do that and go back and do the first one and then they can't do that... At some point you've gotta make a decision and, unless you get some real solid contradictory evidence, you gotta go with what seems like the right thing to do. That's what we did and it didn't work out that time.

Reality TV World: Do you know how long the layover in Amsterdam was originally supposed to be?

Brad: Oh two minutes.

Reality TV World: Oh, so right in and right out?

Brad: Yeah it was just enough time... Actually they told us it was adequate time to catch our plane. It wasn't like w ere going to have to rush to get to the connecting flight to Bucharest in Amsterdam, but it wasn't more than an hour.

Reality TV World: You kind of mentioned this before, but after you learned that you had missed the flight, did you explore any other possible options to get to Bucharest instead of waiting for the 9:15AM flight? Or was there just nothing else?

Victoria: Well there wasn't enough money to take a cab...

Brad: And you can't, [the directions] said "Fly."

Reality TV World: You both seemed to be somewhat resigned to your fate after missed the flight. Did you think that, barring another team making a pretty big mistake, that you had any chance of getting back into the game?

Brad: Well, a couple things... One thing, we didn't think we'd made a mistake and I still don't think we did. We made a decision and it didn't work out in our way, but we're playing to win and not playing to hang out with the rest of he pack so it wasn't a mistake.

The other piece is that we had no idea what the status of the other teams were and as far as we knew they were delayed as much or even worse by fog on different flights and so, although it seemed very dire, without knowing their status [we] sucked it up and raced as hard as we can.

Victoria: We generally were not resigned. I don't think that I bought into "Our game is over" really until we were at the Pit Stop. There was always that possibility that another team royally screwed up. And then there was always that possibility that it was a non-elimination leg.

It was a slim chance, but it was enough for me to hold out hope and keep me going with as much enthusiasm and energy as I would've had had we not made that stupid plane decision.

Brad: And one thing that it was is that it wasn't so much being resigned to our fate, but it was focusing for us in terms of "Okay we have our work cut out for us and we cannot make a single mistake at all to get where we need to get" and we raced that entire leg and we didn't make any mistakes.

We clicked like a machine and I'm most proud of our performance on that leg because it was a long, hard leg and we made up a lot of time on those people, but when you get an 18 hour deficit that's pretty hard to make up.

Reality TV World: Actually that was going to be my next question, they didn't show it much, but about how long did it take you to finish the gymnastics challenge?

Brad: The producers said that Victoria was the best. She done gymnastics as a child and she went through it and did every single thing the first time around with no criticism, bing-bang-boom we're outta there.

Reality TV World: What about the "Vampire" task, it seemed like that may be pretty hard -- and not to mention creepy -- to be doing at night.

Victoria: It was a little bit spooky. I think the one upside to our little debacle was we were the only team that got to participate in the "Vampire" challenge in the dark. It was fun.

Brad: Yeah everyone shoulda done it in the dark, it was a great visual and a great challenge. I had a friend who called me this morning and told me "Hey man, at least you went down covered in blood."

I said "Yeah that should make anybody that has any questions about the plane have second thoughts about giving me shit about that."

Reality TV World: How did you react when you found out that [Victor Jih] and [Tammy Jih] had made some pretty big mistakes [during their leg], and how far did you finish behind them?

Brad: Man, I'll tell you, it was pretty frustrating because up to that point Victor and Tammy had pretty much been machines. They're very intelligent, very personable and they're very good at assembling information and figuring out what they need to do. They're very physical and they were the team to beat, so we kinda thought "Oh you know whatever."

But then as we saw them last night we thought "Man, they're not invincible." If we had stayed we coulda beat them because they made some stupid, stupid mistakes and we thought "They are not invincible," you know? We coulda taken em', we coulda won.

Victoria: What made yesterday's viewing a little bit more difficult because, you know it was difficult when we left and we had been through the "grieving process" and the memory of the Pit Stop in November. Then we kind of had to re-live it all again last week, but that was the first glimpse that we got of how poorly [Tammy and Victor] did on that particular leg and how close we could've come. That just made it that much more bittersweet.

Reality TV World: How [much time] was separating you [and Tammy and Victor]?

Brad: We understand that we were between four and six hours behind them eventually, so we made up quite a bit of time.

Reality TV World: Okay and you said that was [down] from an 18 hour deficit from the flight?

Victoria: [Yes]

Reality TV World: Oh wow.

Victoria: I think that if we had been in the mix, in the real mix (Laughs), and been contenders and not been on that stupid flight, we woulda come out... I mean at the first Pit Stop we were number six, the second Pit Stop we were fifth. I'm certain that we would've been fourth, third or second. We would've been right up there.

Reality TV World: Last night you both touched upon the "difficult times" that you've gone through together in your lives. Could you go into some more detail about that?

Brad: Like difficult times we've gone through as a couple or individuals

Reality TV World: Well I guess either, there was a little [clip] where you both said that you had been through some difficult times.

Victoria: Those are kind of like separate and distinct... We came together ten years ago, and when we met had to overcome some uniquely challenging things in our lives. Mine had been of the physical nature, I had to overcome some physical disabilities, and then as I got older it just made me stronger and stronger and stronger and more bull-headed. I became the kind of person where if you told me "No, I can't do that [unintelligible" I'd be like "Really? No, no, no, no, no. I'm gonna go out and show you."

It's part of my personality. And Brad you can speak for your own hardships if you want (Laughs)

Brad: Well when I was younger and in my late teens I got into drugs and alcohol and had a lot of problems and was pretty much a degenerate alcoholic. I wasn't just kinda like one of your friends who drinks a little too much, I was at one time homeless, I've been to jail several times, many times, and lost many, many jobs and had a lot of misfortunes to go along with that kinda life And when I was 27, I guess, I was sick and tired of it for some reason and I was able to go and turn things around and I've been sober since.

I'm really glad the show didn't focus on that. It's not my primary identity and I think it's lame when they try to focus on the ex-drug addict/alcoholic who's trying to, whatever, prove something. But it does really... it forms who I am.

Reality TV World: Yeah, and congratulations on that by the way. Moving on from that, could you talk a little bit about that cheese challenge in the first round? How difficult was it?

Victoria: (Laughs) We rocked!

Brad: We... the thing is... When they explain everything in the pre-production [meeting] they're like "Read the clue. What we intend when we write the clue is we mean the plain English meaning of the words on the page." The words on the page were "Use the cheese carriers to carry the cheese up and down the hill." So we did that and we helped each other out. We knew how to do it because we've done a lot of adventure racing on different steep terrains so that [hill] wasn't that difficult.

But by the time we realized that a lot of the teams were getting away with not using their carriers and rolling the cheese down hill, that crazy stuff, we were already more than halfway down on the second trip and we realized "Well we're doing pretty good the way the way we're doing it and there's no reason to slide down this hill covered with sheep shit, let's just walk the rest of the way down. We kinda thought the rest of 'em were gonna be penalized and they weren't, I'm not saying they should've been, but we thought that was...

Victoria: That had to be one of our most impressive moments. I think that we had them stunned, stunned that we were actually able to do the challenge in the manner in which it was intended. [But the funny thing] is that "the manner in which it is intended" was not really intended, (Laughs)

Those carriers were waiting to fall apart at the slightest shifting of your body. (Unintelligible) That's the way it's supposed to be done.

Brad: And we had the unintended benefit of being able to, at the end, moon [The Amazing Race host] Phil Keoghan. (Both laugh)

Reality TV World: So you were the only team to complete [that challenge] using just the holders?

Brad: Mike White actually got down alright [as well].

Reality TV World: What teams did you get along with the best? The worst?

Brad: We got along with everyone. Early in the race when the producers come in and they say "You're about to embark on the greatest experience of your life. At the end of this thing you're gonna be friends with all these people," and I thought "You know what? I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to win a $1 million, so really suck on that."

But you know what? We did end up being friends with everyone there and between all of us -- which we all call ourselves "The Cheese Hill Gang" because it's the one challenge that we all did in common -- we send 10-30 emails a day back and forth that we all just copy each other on. Every stupid little thing, every little thing that gets said on some little forum. All kinda of stupid stuff gets sent back and forth. We're very close and plan to meet in two weeks for a cast viewing party.

Reality TV World: What was your favorite or least favorite experience on The Amazing Race?

Victoria: I had a couple of really awesome experiences. The bungee jump was absolutely incredible but you know what, the pie throwing was a great deal of fun too. [It was a great chance for Brad and I] to be a little down and dirty and laugh and it was just funny. It was hilarious, I was laughing so hard I was crying.

Brad: I would say me favorite experience was the train ride through the Swiss Alps. (Laughs) My least favorite experiences was cooling my heals in the nicest Holiday Inn in the world in Amsterdam.

Victoria: Aww.

Reality TV World: Is there anything that you expected to make it onto the show that was edited out?

Brad: When we got to Bucharest we got a taxi ride to the gymnastics' studio and it was straight out of a James Bond movie. This guy was driving 50 miles-per-hour through rush hour traffic, missing cars by an inch. He'd go flying up on two lanes of stopped traffic and we'd thought he was gonna smash up into the backs and he'd jump up, drive on the railroad tracks, cut across the intersection, go the wrong way down a one way street honking his horn and flashing his lights. Absolutely insane, and we were like "Yes!! [the whole way] We got places to be. We'll either die or we'll get there, it's one or the other and we're not going down without a fight."

Victoria: That was wild.

Reality TV World: It seemed like [Margie Adams and [Luke Adams] really inspired a bunch of people out there with their communication skills and hard work. Could you both talk about what you thought about them a little?

Brad: I don't know. In the first part of the race we were frequently within a place or two of them, we traveled together a lot. When we stayed in Stechelberg overnight we stayed in a hostile and shared a bunk house with them, well at least those two, and me and Vic, [Mel White] and [Mike White], and they're both really nice people. I like 'em both a lot and I'm proud of them. I know Luke is extremely proud of himself and it's really nice to see that. I get messages from Luke quite frequently on Facebook and we're all still very close. Luke is having the ride of his life. For a young guy to have an experience like this is really special so I really feel good for him.

Reality TV World: How'd you guys end up on the show -- whose idea was it? Was this the first time you have applied for [the show] or had you done it before?

Victoria: (Laughs) I have a rather long history of applying for reality shows. I was really hell-bent on getting on Survivor and I had applied for that show many times and hadn't gotten very far in the process. At one point I had made a plan to [to get on Survivor] and I sent the casting director a photo of Brad and I together. The photo pushed us into contention and she wrote me back right away [and said] "How about The Amazing Race?"

It was done in an instant. (Unintelligible)

Brad: Yeah that's right. She tried to get on Survivor for six or eight seasons and the minute they saw me... She's a Hollywood casting director, she can see a star when she [sees one], so you know... (Both laugh)

Last night's "Amazing Race" held little suspense for us viewers, as Brad and Victoria missed a key connection getting to Bucharest, stranding them far behind everyone else. I really hate to see a team get booted due to no real fault of their own. Don't you?

So even when Victor inexplicably forced Tammy to follow a series of clearly-not-Amazing-Race-colored markers on a long departure from the course, and even when Tammy's repeated attempts to get him to change his mind fell on deaf ears, the result wasn't enough for Brad and Victoria to catch up.

I chatted with the two of them a little earlier today, and due to technical difficulties (i.e., my tape recorder is not sentient with legs, and allowed me to leave it at home), I'll sum things up.

Both of them told me they thought they still were in it, despite their travel snafu. They'd lost track of the other teams, Brad said, and there was a chance that everyone else had fog problems. "When we got up the next morning, we raced like there was no tomorrow," Victoria said. "We really kicked ass other than that stupid

Brad and Victoria said they woke up about 18 hours behind the other teams. But because of their racing, they finished only four to six hours behind the second-to-last place team, Tammy and Victor. "We stayed focused," Brad said. "We didn't make a single mistake." Along the way, he admitted, they caught some lucky breaks. Their taxi drivers knew what they were doing, for instance. And Victoria apparently killed the gymnastics roadblock. She said she remembered how to do some of the moves from her childhood, and she managed to get everything right in one try. "I think I knocked it out in five minutes," Victoria said.

Like almost every other pair of Racers I've talked to, both said it was a great experience and allowed them to visit places they probably wouldn't have gotten to on their own. Victoria described the Race as "a mixture of cold, wet, hungry, tired" where you can't communicate with anyone.

One of the unexpected benefits Brad found was that a number of old friends saw him on television and were prompted to contact him. He also said that they bonded with the other Racers and were looking forward to meeting the people at TARCon. "The Race itself is over, but all those friendships are starting," Brad said.

Brad divulged in a confessional in last night's episode that he had problems with addiction. He said he was glad the editors didn't make it the focus of his editing. While he's been homeless, and in jail and had problems with alcohol, Brad said he doesn't try to hide his past but he doesn't make a big deal about it or define himself because of it either.

The two were hoping to be able to retire by winning the Race. Now they're looking forward to doing some traveling. Brad said he wants to go to Eastern Europe, while Victoria said she wants to go to some place sunny, like Spain or Portugal. "We'll hash it out," Brad said.

Amazing Race's Brad and Victoria Upbeat About Elimination; Ready to Tackle Next Roadblock

Mar 2, 2009 09:16 PM ET by Joyce Eng

Brad Hunt and Victoria Hunt It was gypsies, vamps and a really bad flight on Sunday's Amazing Race 14 that saw married couple Brad and Victoria Hunt eliminated. The duo opted for an earlier flight to Bucharest, Romania with a connection through Amsterdam — which would've worked out well if they hadn't missed the connection. Was the slim, 15-minute advantage they would've gotten worth the risk? They think so. Find out what else the couple had to say about their unlucky fate, why the leg was still the best part of the Race for them and what new challenges they're currently facing.

TVGuide.com: I was so sad to see you two go. I thought you were going to go far.Victoria: Oh, thank you! We were very sad too. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: So the big question is: Why did you decide to take that flight?Brad: It's kind of a long story. In the first leg we had gotten some information about how to get to the Church of San Antonio by talking to some tourists — info that other teams didn't have. As soon as we got off the train, the other teams followed us and from there shouted the name and got there before us. Typically the rationale for not getting on a plane with another team is you've got at least one team you can beat in a foot race to the finish. Once we saw that happen with the church and with Linda and Steve gone, there was no team there that we would want to get in a foot race to the finish. So we knew we needed to a) get away from the group so when we got some info, they couldn't follow us and use our info and b) it was pointless to drag another team along with us because any of them could beat us. Even though it was only a 15-minute advantage, it would've still been enough to get us away from the rest of the group, where we could get info on our own.

The second thing is, until we got to the departure lounge, we weren't sure if there were gonna be other teams sitting there. You try to get the earliest flight you can and we'd feel pretty stupid to decline a flight that would leave 15 minutes earlier. There's no one at the departure lounge, so we thought whatever, we'll work it out. Then they said there was gonna be fog and the gate agent assured us the planes in Amsterdam would be delayed even more so we'd make the connection.Victoria: They were all very encouraging. If they weren't, we might've made a quick decision that moment to drop that plan and try to get another flight. It's hard to explain to people unless you're right there in the moment making those decisions. It's hard to convey to people how you rationalize each decision along the way. We've heard people's opinions. "Oh, you should've known better! Never get on a plane without another team. Never take a flight with a connection." We know! But until you're there, it's kind of hard. Brad: Every stupid thing I've done in my life seemed like a good idea at the time.

TVGuide.com: You can blame the gate agent.Victoria: Exactly right! [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: How delayed were you guys?Victoria: We think that set us back a whopping 18 hours.Brad: We missed the plane by a minute. Our plane from Munich landed at the exact same minute as the plane from Amsterdam left. Even when the plane landed, they couldn't tell us absolutely for sure that we had missed it.Victoria: It was so close! So close! And we didn't know what was going on. We didn't know what the other teams were doing. When we got up the next day, we were like fiends, racing through the challenges. We made good decisions. We were skilled. We got a good cab driver. We really nailed that day. We would've been the team to beat if we had been able to do it 18 hours earlier. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: What did you do in the airport?Brad: Oh, they put us up in the nicest Holiday Inn in the world! It was literally the nicest. It was first class. You'd never know it was a Holiday Inn. We made the mistake of wishing we'd be somewhere to see the Election Night returns come in because that was Election Day and we were thinking maybe an airport bar. Little did we know, we got a really nice hotel room. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: You two finished in the dark. Do you know how far behind Tammy and Victor you were?Brad: We were told six hours. Victoria: We could've beaten them.Brad: We ran the leg fastest out of anyone aside from the plane ride.

TVGuide.com: Did anyone tell you that Tammy and Victor got lost on the Detour and messed up badly when you got there, or did you find out last night?Brad: We didn't know until the next team arrived at Elimination Station. The first thing they asked was, "What happened to you guys?" They don't tell you what happens to teams behind you; they just disappear. We had heard a little bit about what they had done, but without seeing it, we didn't really realize how badly they screwed up. I think, watching it last night, we were like, "God, they're not invincible! We could've gotten them!" [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: You said on the show you were holding out hope that maybe someone else screwed up worse than you two did. Was it hard to find the positive side, knowing you were so far behind?Victoria: We were in very high spirits and it was a very fun, playful day. I don't think for even a moment I allowed thought of failure to enter my mind. I supposed, intellectually, I was prepared, but until we actually stepped foot on the mat and Phil told us, we still naively believed that it was possible somebody else might've screwed up as bad as we did or maybe it was a non-elimination leg.Brad: Victoria and I have faced a lot of challenges in our lives and some challenges together. Whenever you face a challenge, it's not the time to second-guess and get involved with negative thinking. We both kinda agreed the last leg, racing from Amsterdam to Transylvania, was the best part of the Race for us. Everything just clicked and it was bam, bam, bam.

TVGuide.com: We hardly saw you doing anything, though. They showed you for not even10 seconds for the Roadblock and the Detour.Brad: If we had a big, freak-out meltdown, we would've gotten all kinds of airtime. We were pretty much no drama. But the 10 seconds they showed, we're just kinda smiling. We didn't get a lot of airtime on the show because pretty boring TV is, like, yeah, no drama. [Laughs]Victoria: I don't think we're boring. I don't think our fans think we're boring. We're fun, happy people and we get along really well, and I think people like to see that once in a while.

TVGuide.com: What are you up to now?Brad: Well, some things. Victoria hurt her hip on the run down the mountain [in the second episode]. It pretty much crippled her, so she's gonna be faced with some surgery in June. And two weeks before the premiere, I was diagnosed with cancer, so I got a little challenge ahead of me.Victoria: We came away with some issues. [Laughs]Brad: We have a few things on our plate before we think about our where our next worldwide travel adventure is going to be.

I loved Brad and Victoria as a team and I was very sad to see them eliminated (although I would have been sadder if Tammy and Victor had been eliminated). However, they make a number of statements in their phone interviews that are hyperbole:

1. We were behind by 18 hours - they left 2 hours ahead of several other teams and 2 3/4 hours behind the leaders. By the time they actually departed Amsterdam, they were then a non-comparable 2 3/4 hours behind the teams departing the Bucharest train station and by the time they got to Bucharest and Victoria did the gymnastics and got to the train station it had to be about 3pm, so they were then 8.5 hours behind. They would catch the 330pm train arriving 626pm in Brasov (long after dark). At that point they would be 9 hours behind and they would finish approximately 9 hours behind the leaders and maybe 5 hours behind Tammy/Victor.

2. "We just missed the connection as we landed in AMS only 1 to 2 minutes before the flight to Bucharest departed" - this is not even a true statement(proof can be found on TWOP) and indicates their naivety about how much connection time is needed in major European airports, including Schipol. You need about 30 minutes to make a connection unless you are so fortunate that the departing plane is within a very few gates of the arriving one; that seldom happens. European airlines have delays routinely (just as we do in the U.S.) and they apparently do not hold the last flight for all connections (which does happen in the U.S.).

Depending on whether the weather delay caused their plane to remain at the gate, Brad and Victoria probably could have gotten off it before it left the gate in Munich and gotten onto the Lufthansa flight at 930pm. They should have if they could have.

The most difficult thing for their fans to accept is that they did all of this for a measly 15 minute gain in arrival time (1210am vs. 1225am) in Bucharest. Since it was the middle of the night the chances of some kind of bunching were very high and one did occur at the Bucharest Nord train station. You have to question why they took such a large risk.

Hopefully Brad or Victoria could answer your questions apskips someday. You were not there so really calling their statements a bit absurb is a bit rude when you do NOT knowing all the details

Quote

TVGuide.com: What are you up to now?Brad: Well, some things. Victoria hurt her hip on the run down the mountain [in the second episode]. It pretty much crippled her, so she's gonna be faced with some surgery in June. And two weeks before the premiere, I was diagnosed with cancer, so I got a little challenge ahead of me.Victoria: We came away with some issues. [Laughs]Brad: We have a few things on our plate before we think about our where our next worldwide travel adventure is going to be

After all they have been through and now this sad news but.... and in my mind, Victoria and Brad are strong willed and the way they support and love each other they will persevere to rise above any obstacles that get in their way. When the going gets tough the tough get going.